Comparison of fermentation characteristics and bacterial diversity in the rumen of sheep and batch cultures of rumen microorganisms

The objective of the current study was to assess how closely batch cultures (BC) of rumen microorganisms can mimic the dietary differences in fermentation characteristics found in the rumen, and to analyse changes in bacterial diversity over the in vitro incubation period. Four ruminally and duodenally cannulated sheep were fed four diets having forage : concentrate ratios (FCR) of 70 : 30 or 30 : 70, with either alfalfa hay or grass hay as forage. Rumen fluid from each sheep was used to inoculate BC containing the same diet fed to the donor sheep, and the main rumen fermentation parameters were determined after 24 h of incubation. There were differences between BC and sheep in the magnitude of most measured parameters, but BC detected differences among diets due to forage type similar to those found in sheep. In contrast, BC did not reproduce the dietary differences due to FCR found in sheep for pH, degradability of neutral detergent fibre and total volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations. There were differences between systems in the magnitude of most determined parameters and BC showed higher pH values and NH3–N concentrations, but lower fibre degradability and VFA and lactate concentrations compared with sheep. There were significant relationships between in vivo and in vitro values for molar proportions of acetate, propionate and butyrate, and the acetate : propionate ratio. The automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA) of 16S ribosomal deoxyribonucleic acid showed that FCR had no effect on bacterial diversity either in the sheep rumen fluid used as inoculum (IN) or in BC samples. In contrast, bacterial diversity was greater with alfalfa hay diets than those with grass hay in the IN, but was unaffected by forage type in the BC. Similarity index between the bacterial communities in the inocula and those in the BC ranged from 67·2 to 74·7%, and was unaffected by diet characteristics. Bacterial diversity was lower in BC than in the inocula with 14 peaks out of a total of 181 detected in the ARISA electropherograms never appearing in BC samples, which suggests that incubation conditions in the BC may have caused a selection of some bacterial strains. However, each BC sample showed the highest similarity index with its corresponding rumen IN, which highlights the importance of using rumen fluid from donors fed a diet similar to that being incubated in BC when conducting in vitro experiments

Terminal Pleistocene emergence of maritime interaction networks across Wallacea

The crossing of the Wallacean islands and settlement of Sahul by modern humans over 50,000 years ago, represents the earliest successful seafaring of our species anywhere in the world. Archaeological research throughout this vast island archipelago has recovered evidence for varied patterns in island occupation, with accumulating evidence suggesting a significant change in cultural activities and interaction amongst island communities following the LGM. New forms of technology such as shell fish hooks and adzes appear alongside standardised forms of shell beads, indicating that these technological innovations were accompanied by shared styles of personal ornamentation. Simultaniously, obsidian from a single, off-island source is found in the archaeological assemblages on at least four islands. We explore these implied spheres of interaction across Wallacea, with a focus on the terminal-Pleistocene/early-Holocene cultural materials and customs linking the southeastern Wallacean islands of Alor, Timor, and Kisar, and other parts of greater Wallacea and Near Oceania

Estudio comparativo entre el cultivo convencional y ecológico de trigo para alimentación animal

El objetivo de este estudio fue investigar las diferencias en el rendimiento productivo y el valor nutritivo entre el cultivo ecológico y convencional de trigo invernal para su utilización en alimentación animal. La producción de forraje fue determinada en el mes de mayo de tres años consecutivos y la producción de paja y grano se determinó en el mes de julio de los dos primeros años. Las muestras fueron secadas para determinar su composición química y su digestibilidad in vitro. Adicionalmente, 500 mg de cada muestra fueron incubados con 50 mL de líquido ruminal tamponado a 39°C. En estas incubaciones se midió la producción de gas a diferentes tiempos para estimar la cinética de fermentación y se analizaron los parámetros de fermentación tras 24 horas de incubación. La producción de forraje, grano y paja fue mayor en las parcelas convencionales que en las ecológicas. El contenido en proteína bruta fue más bajo en el cultivo ecológico que en el convencional, tanto para el forraje como para el grano. La digestibilidad in vitro fue similar para los dos tipos de cultivo y no existieron diferencias en la cinética de degradación ni en la producción de ácidos grasos volátiles. Los resultados indican que el cultivo ecológico provocó una disminución de la producción y en el contenido de proteína en el forraje y en los granos de trigo, pero no se observaron efectos en la degradación ruminal. Estos resultados indican que el sistema de cultivo del trigo afecta a su composición química y por ello debe realizarse una valoración previa del mismo cuando se utilice para alimentación animal.The objective of this study was to assess the differences in yield and nutritive value of organically and conventionally grown wheat crops as animal feeds. Forage yield was determined in May in three consecutive years and straw and grain yield was determined in July in the two first years. Samples were dried to determine their chemical composition and in vitro digestibility. Additionally, 500 mg of each sample were incubated with 50 mL of buffered rumen fluid at 39°C to estimate rumen fermentation kinetics and fermentation parameters after 24 hours. Forage, grain and straw yield was greater in conventionally grown crops than in organic ones. Crude protein content was lower in organically grown wheat, both for the forage or the grain. In vitro digestibility was similar in both types of cultures and there were no differences in degradation kinetics parameters or volatile fatty acids production. Results indicate that organic cultivation lead to a decrease in yield and crude protein content in forage and wheat grain, but there were no differences in their ruminal degradation. These results indicate that cultivation system affects chemical composition of wheat and, therefore, it is necessary to assess the nutritive value of organically grown cereals intended for animal feeding

Continuity and variability in prehistoric fishing practices by Homo sapiens in Island Southeast Asia: new ichthyofaunal data from Asitau Kuru, Timor-Leste

Human adaptations to marine resources were critical in the successful colonization of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and the Pacific since the Late Pleistocene. Fishing the dense biomass of ichthyofauna present in this maritime region required the cognitive capability to conceptualize fish ecology and develop methods and technologies to exploit these challenging underwater environments. This likely gave our species an edge over other hominin species in depauperate island landscapes. This paper reviews the limited number of archaeological sites in ISEA where fish bone assemblages and fishing gears have been recovered, incorporating new archaeological data from the site of Asitau Kuru (Jerimalai), Timor-Leste. Our findings indicate continuity in fishing behavior over several millennia with a near-shore exploitation of local marine habitats including trolling, line fishing and spearing. These data indicate the ecological plasticity of our species and the enduring fishing traditions passed on to generations through learned behavior

Predistorsión Digital mediante Señales Enventanadas Tipo Chirp para la Linealización de Amplificadores de Potencia

Digital PreDistortion (DPD) is a well-known method to reduce nonlinear distortion in power amplifiers (PA). In a LTE uplink transmission, the modulation schemes are adaptive. Thus, the DPD function will have to be re-calibrated once the modulation changes. This fact increases the DPD computational cost and the required memory. If the DPD is not re-trained its linearity performance will decrease. This effect can be reduced using a suitable training signal. We propose several novel non-stationary calibration signals based on a windowed-chirp waveform. The envelope of these sequences is bounded by different windows used in signal processing such as Bartlett, Blackman, Hamming or Welch. Bartlett and Blackman windows generate calibration sequences with higher peak to average power ratio values than Welch. Welch envelope creates a signal with a more uniform probability density function (pdf) than the Hamming-window, whose pdf is similar to a Rayleigh distribution. The linearization strategy is based on capturing the described sequences at the PA input and output to extract the predistortion parameters. Once the predistorter functions are computed, we apply them on various LTE-transmissions and perform linearity measurements in terms of the adjacent channel leakage ratio to compare with the standard requirements. In all cases the maximum nonlinear distortion reduction is accomplished with the Chirp-Bartlett sequence (up to 37dBc when transmitting a QPSK-LTE-signal). Thus, good DPD performance is achieved when using the proposed Bartlett-Chirp in the DPD-training-stage. This avoids generating specific DPDs for each modulation scheme, saving computational cost, required memory, and increasing the system efficiency

Prehistoric Human Migrations in Southeast Asia through the Lenses of Burial Practices

Burial practices commonly reflect cultural manifestations shared by a community. How deceased are interred can reflect belief systems, hygiene measures, or complex social diversification, among other factors. In modern times, these practices are highly standardized based on belief and social systems, with static rites repeated throughout time. In prehistoric times, it could be assumed that similar static systems would have been present, with the standing burial practices adopted by a community or including limited modifications. As such, similar mortuary practices in distant regions can provide evidence of migrations or cultural transmission. Extensive research carried out in Southeast Asia reveals diverse burial treatments during both synchronic and diachronic periods. Through a review of the burial practices identified in sites dated from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene (until 3000ya) in Mainland and Island Southeast Asia, this chapter aims to address how mortuary practices can inform on prehistoric human migrations in Southeast Asia before the Austronesian dispersal. A specific case study is presented summarizing previous research in Tron Bon Lei (Alor Island, Indonesia)

Talking Dead. New burials from Tron Bon Lei (Alor Island, Indonesia) inform on the evolution of mortuary practices from the terminal Pleistocene to the Holocene in Southeast Asia

Burial elaborations are a human behaviour that, in recent contexts can inform on social diversification, belief systems, and the introduction of new practices resulting from migration or cultural transmission. The study of mortuary practices in Mainland and Island Southeast Asia has revealed complex and diverse treatments of the deceased. This paper contributes to this topic with the description of three new burials excavated in Tron Bon Lei (Alor Island, Indonesia) dated to 7.5, 10, and 12 kya cal BP. In addition to the bioskeletal profiles and palaeohealth observations, we propose the adoption of archaeothanatological methods to characterise burial types in the region. Through the analysis of skeletal element representation, body position, articulation, and grave associations, we provide an example of a holistic approach to mortuary treatments in the Lesser Sunda Islands. Our results provide significant new data for understanding the evolution and diversification of burial practices in Southeast Asia, contributing to a growing body of literature describing prehistoric socio-cultural behaviour in this region

Radio-over-fiber linearization with optimized genetic algorithm CPWL model

This article proposes an optimized version of a canonical piece-wise-linear (CPWL) digital predistorter in order to enhance the linearity of a radio-over-fiber (RoF) LTE mobile fronthaul. In this work, we propose a threshold allocation optimization process carried out by a genetic algorithm (GA) in order to optimize the CPWL model (GA-CPWL). Firstly, experiments show how the CPWL model outperforms the classical memory polynomial DPD in an intensity modulation/direct detection (IM/DD) RoF link. Then, the GA-CPWL predistorter is compared with the CPWL model in several scenarios, in order to verify that the proposed DPD offers better performance in different optical transmission conditions. Experimental results reveal that with a proper threshold allocation, the GA-CPWL predistorter offers very promising outcomes